Tortoises

In the summer of 2009, Madelaine Lock of Eustis and her son Jay found themselves observing the giant tortoises at the Charles Darwin Research Station in the Galapagos Islands. They had taken a cruise to the islands aboard the National Geographic Explorer II, and visited six islands, including Santa Cruz, where the Darwin station is situated. They learned there are two kinds of tortoises on the island. The domed-back tortoises, like this one, can live up to 150 years and weigh 600 pounds; they eat five or six pounds of vegetation daily.

On a day more suited to lounging poolside, a dedicated crew instead spent Sunday digging in the sand at a sweltering construction site, saving gopher tortoises. Workers from the Humane Society of the United States were at the Meadows of Maude Helen subdivision near Apopka, removing the reptiles from their burrows before the area becomes a residential neighborhood. It's an effort that has gained new urgency as the housing market has recovered from its low point during the economic meltdown of recent years.

On a day more suited to lounging poolside, a dedicated crew instead spent Sunday digging in the sand at a sweltering construction site, saving gopher tortoises. Workers from the Humane Society of the United States were at the Meadows of Maude Helen subdivision near Apopka, removing the reptiles from their burrows before the area becomes a residential neighborhood. It's an effort that has gained new urgency as the housing market has recovered from its low point during the economic meltdown of recent years.

As if there weren't enough exotic species crawling around Florida, as if there wasn't enough attention being paid to muscled Burmese pythons, gape-mouthed anacondas and football-sized Bofu marinas toads, add to the list of escaped exotic pets the tegu, a little known, leg-sized lizard that is making it big here. The beast originates in South America but has established a beachhead in Florida, and in particular, Hillsborough County, where confirmed sightings of more than 100 tegus southeast of Riverview make this one of three breeding populations in the state.

CLERMONT -- Fifty-six gopher tortoises recently were relocated by Tarmac America's Center Sand Mine from an area being prepared for mining. The tortoises were moved to a 35-acre site on company property that will not be mined. Some background on the relocation: ANIMAL FACT Named for gopherlike ability to dig burrows to the water table, gopher tortoises average 9 to 11 inches in length. They feast on fruits, grasses and bean-family plants, among other things, and prefer sandy upland areas.

I was shocked and saddened to read the article on the "intentional decline" of gopher tortoises. I do not understand how developers can pay the state to be allowed to bury alive these legally protected creatures, and the other guests that share their burrows. We continue to destroy the habitats of thousands of creatures by creating more strip malls, parking lots and housing developments without a second thought. But to intentionally kill animals is horrific. It's frightening to me that humans do not understand the ecological damage being done to this planet by our careless behaviors.

Dubious dismissals As Florida's attorney general, Pam Bondi's responsibilities include protecting Florida consumers from fraud. At least that's what it says on her own website. So why would Bondi's office oust two lawyers who were nationally recognized for their success in exposing fraud at foreclosure firms? Their work led to a $2million settlement with one firm. At first Bondi wouldn't explain why the lawyers got axed. Then her office issued a statement Wednesday afternoon saying they were "failing to meet expectations.

Geneva -- Volunteers have rescued nearly 300 gopher tortoises whose rural home is about to be developed, organizers of the effort announced Saturday. The last 59 of the tortoises, an imperiled species, were relocated Friday at Nokuse Plantation, a 48,000-acre private conservation area in the Panhandle, said Carissa Kent, who spearheaded the rescue. During several weeks, volunteers located 690 burrows and rescued 293 tortoises on what will become Wilderness Estates, a 10-home gated development in Geneva.

Melbourne -- Florida wildlife authorities agreed Wednesday that the permitted killing of gopher tortoises at construction sites will end July 30. The controversial practice, called "incidental take," allows developers to pay hundreds of dollars for permission to crush or entomb the reptiles, an option that is often quicker and cheaper than relocating them. Since the early 1990s, permits have been issued for the taking of more than 90,000 tortoises. Meeting in Melbourne, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission also gave preliminary approval to plans to protect tortoises as a species threatened with extinction.

MINNEOLA -- The city is relocating a large community of protected gopher tortoises before starting construction on its first sewage-treatment plant. The 32-acre site near Grassy Lake and Sullivan roads is dotted with up to 300 spots where the tortoises have burrowed. Only one-third of those holes are where the sewage facility is proposed, and engineers working for the city estimate that about 50 tortoises may be there. Crews started the delicate task of removing the reptiles from their holes Wednesday.

I second the Sentinel's opinion ("Throw the Book," June 4) that "perhaps tough consequences would discourage other jerks from picking on defenseless creatures" - but only if the case gets prosecuted. Unfortunately, even in listed protectedspecies crimes where intent is obvious and due diligence is done by arresting wildlife officers to nab the offenders and record and present evidence, charges can be dropped by state attorneys or thrown out in court. The state's Chapter 828.12 specifies a third-degree felony for animal cruelty and provides for an fine up to $10,000 and/or a maximum five years imprisonment.

EUSTIS - Ron Concoby is in the know when it comes to the gopher tortoise. Concoby, 54, will share his knowledge about the threatened species at 6 p.m. today at Trout Lake Nature Center. "They are fairly common," he said. "You should not pick them up and move them. " Concoby, owner of Habitat Restoration and Wildlife Protection Services, said gopher tortoises usually live to be 60 or so, may be 9 to 11 inches long and weigh 7 to 9 pounds. They live in upland habitats including forests, pastures and yards.

The 2012 race has turned into one of Aesop 's classic fables. After each new media blitz against the no-frills Mitt Romney , a far cooler President Obama races ahead three or four points in the polls -- only to fall back to about even as the attention fades. Meanwhile, the Romney tortoise, head down on the campaign trail, keeps lumbering along toward the November finish. There is nothing fancy day in and day out -- only the steady plod of a good enough convention, workmanlike speeches that pass muster, a Midwestern vice president nominee who is informed and reliable, and the standard conservative correctives offered to liberal excesses.

The world knew him as Lonesome George, a Galapagos Island tortoise who was the last survivor of his kind and whose recent death marked its extinction. It was an ending conservationists had hoped to prevent as they tried to breed him with other giant tortoises. But to their chagrin, George lived up to his name — a turtle very much alone. "He had one unhappy defect, that he had no interest in reproducing," said internationally renowned zoologist Peter Pritchard of Oviedo.

Part of our world was permanently lost last week with the death of the last Pinta Island tortoise. Lonesome George was the last of his subspecies. Two Galapagos Island tortoises live at Bloomington's Miller Park Zoo, but they are from a different family branch. A number of Miller Park species, including the tortoises, are endangered. Zoos around the world lead conservation efforts through education and breeding programs. Sadly, Lonesome George's death punctuates a recent Pantagraph story about why such efforts are needed: Once a species is gone, it's gone.

Three young men are charged with torturing and killing endangered tortoises last weekend in Orange County, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Michael Dublin, 20, of Jacksonville ; Dalton Bothwell, 19, and a 17-year-old boy, both of Middleburg, are charged with killing and wounding a threatened species and felony cruelty to animals. The charges are third-degree felonies, and each carries a maximum penalty of a $10,000 fine and five years in prison.

TWO UNIVERSITY of South Florida biologists have spent the last year keeping a diary on 40 gopher tortoise populations throughout the state, trying to identify the environments the threatened reptiles need. So far, Earl McCoy and Henry Mushinsky have found that the tortoises prefer dry, sandy and slightly inclined land where overgrowth is held in check by lightning fires. The tortoises on Sanibel Island, for example, are dwindling because of Brazilian pepper overgrowth. The researchers' final report is expected to help builders plan their work to avoid killing the tortoises.

Seven gopher tortoises were moved from the Seminole Community College main campus recently. The tortoises, which had made their homes in burrows, were removed July 9 and given new homes so that construction could begin on the SCC-UCF University Partnership Center. SCC's Environmental Club adviser, Anne Hawkinson, watched the excavation of the tortoises. A team of environmental experts from Lotspeich and Associates used PVC pipe, shovels and a large backhoe to get to the turtles in their burrows, which were as deep as 20 feet underground.

Florida's approach to saving gopher tortoises from extinction a decade ago allowed developers to bury the docile reptiles alive in their burrows in return for what critics called "blood money" that was used to buy and protect tortoise habitat elsewhere. Thousands of tortoises a year were sentenced to death at the height of Florida's building boom, with Orange County leading the way. Opposition from environmentalists and animal-rights advocates finally brought a halt to the state's "pay to pave" program in 2007 — just as the nationwide housing slump and Great Recession brought a halt to most new construction, anyway.